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March,
2007
We're off to England,
Wales and the Czech Republic for the remainder of March and beginning of
April,
so this report is coming out a bit early.
If you like mountains,
snow and Marines,
follow the link above.
02 Mar 2007 –
Looking West from the Main House Drive
The day after a big dump;
note the interesting drifts on the roof.
This photo illustrates our strategy for plowing snow around the Carriage
House.
We want as much snow melt as possible to drain down to Place Creek
rather than contribute to mud and ice at the Carriage House.
There is a catch basin and lots of brush between the drive and the creek
to ensure the run-off is clear of sediment.
The embankment created by plowing serves another important purpose:
it may catch people who come down from the Main House too fast and find
they cannot negotiate the turn.
It was good the roofers got underlayment and some metal on the roof the
last day of February because the weather man missed the forecast for
March 1 in a big way.
Bridger Bowl claimed 30" for the day.
The Bozeman Chronicle headline noted a corresponding widespread outbreak
of the "snow-day flu".
We got so much snow at the Carriage House we thought no-one would show.
However,
seven workmen showed up and three more came up to assess work that will
begin in a couple of weeks.
As has been the case many times before,
the Friday forecast for the weekend was "clear and sunny." But,
people here do not work on weekends.
As usual,
Gary and Pauline used the weekend to clean up the site.
The weekend's good weather continued into the work week.
Inside,
the central vacuum,
rough plumbing and HVAC were well underway.
Best of all,
the roofers were busy completing the metal roof.
At right,
a roofer works on the
cricket.
Our big assignment was to lay out the plan for the lighting
and switches so the electrician could get started.
The sun and warm weather brought a repeat of February's fast
melt and run-off over soil still frozen a couple of inches
below the surface.
We only suffered a bit of run-off damage to the drive,
but some of our neighbors had wash-outs and flooded
basements.
Some streets in Bozeman were impassable.
It was almost as bad as
mud season,
especially for the dogs,
who do not appreciate being hosed off before they can come
inside.
At the Main House,
our concerns with moisture were the joints where the
concrete for the Garage met the new foundation and new Mud
Room roof
(recall that the Mud Room and Garage are underground).
Water was leaking through these joints,
which would prevent us from putting insulation and drywall
into the areas below.
Before the new concrete was poured,
special tubing was mounted along the joints;
now that the concrete had cured enough,
the tubing was injected with expansive rubber-like foam to
make a good seal.
As added insurance,
we coated the exterior of the joints with tar.
The mason put cement block as footing where the wall will be
faced with stone then covered the blocks with a tarp to
protect from the weather as the mortar set.
These measures appear to have stopped the leaks.
The final step will be to lay down a thick rubber membrane
over the top and up the walls,
then join it to the membrane already under the dirt at
right;
this should prevent moisture from reaching the joints,
making our current measures a second line of defense.
By mid-month,
the roof and windows were finished so the electrician got
started.
Most electrical systems were straightforward.
The difficult problems were how to light the Great Room and
the South Patio.
Solid timbers with lots of glass limit options for wiring,
and we didn't want to deface timbers by mounting light
fixtures to them.
But,
we had to compromise to come up with a strategy for the
Great Room lighting
that meets most of our goals.
As we near the time for insulation and dry wall,
many decisions have to be finalized.
We often stroll up to the Main House to see what is
happening and wind up spending 2 or more hours being
peppered with questions from the workmen about how to wrap
up details.
This is compounded by the fact that we will be away for
2½
weeks and they don't want to be held up by unanswered
questions.
When we return April 12,
the house should be ready for final inspection before
insulating.
On our last weekend of cleanup detail before leaving,
we were joined by a
Mountain Bluebird
that kept trying to get into the house.
Perhaps it saw its reflection in the window.
Parting Shot
Canary Spring,
Again
Visitors Kevin and Wendy from Chilliwack,
British Columbia,
accompanied us to Yellowstone.
We saw wolves,
big horn sheep,
a bald eagle,
coyotes and the usual bison and elk.
We stopped for our obligatory picture at Canary Spring so we can track
the encroachment of the spring on the boardwalk.
It appears the encroachment has slowed since
September, 2006.
The viewing platform had to be truncated after
September, 2005.
As they left to return to Canada,
they were treated to a sighting of
Sand Hill Cranes
at the bottom of our property.